


Guns and Spurs

by aparticularbandit



Category: Deputy (TV 2020), Jane the Virgin (TV)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Wild West AU, because why not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-24
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:40:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22875685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aparticularbandit/pseuds/aparticularbandit
Summary: In which Paula and Luisa have two brain cells between them and Paula monopolizes all of their time.OR Wild West AU where Paula and Luisa are twins, Cade's family adopts them, and Sin Rostro is an infamous outlaw instead of a crime lord.  Also there's no plans for Jane or Rafael to show up BUT what would a JTV crossover into Wild West territory be without Jason and Susanna?
Relationships: Bill Hollister/Paula Reyes, Luisa Alver & Paula Reyes, Luisa Alver/Rose Solano
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Note that the tags as far as characters and relationships do take into account future plans. Rose is not in this chapter. Rose might not show up for a while. Bill will probably show up before Rose does because I see him and Paula being married and already having Maggie before Lu meets Rose SO LIKE. MIGHT BE A BIT BEFORE ROSE SHOWS UP.
> 
> That said, it's highly likely that there might be a time skip at some point because the girls are only like...fifteen here (and Cade's probably around that same age), and I'm not planning on detailing everything that happens over multiple years before Rose showing up and us getting into other stuff that's planned, you know?
> 
> BUT BABY BILL GONNA MEET BABY PAULA FIRST.
> 
> So have fun with babies while we have them. ^^

“C’mon, Lu, we can’t stay here.”

Luisa rubs a hand across her bleary eyes and stares at her sister, unable to keep from pouting. “We’ve been walking all day and it’s hot and I’m thirsty and we don’t have water and I can stay here if I want to.” But she keeps walking forward, one hand on her little pack. It once held food, just like the flask at her hip once held water, back when they’d crossed the border. But that was days ago, and they’d both been too scared to try and fill either at the last town where they’d hidden themselves.

Paula stays a little ahead of her sister. She’s older – by a few seconds, something she remembers even though she rarely mentions it – because it means she has to be the responsible one, the adult, and make sure they get somewhere safe before they curl up and sleep. Safe means a town. Even if it is a ghost town. Safe means a _building_ where they can’t get attacked by coyotes and can keep hidden from the outlaws.

They’re young. They have to stick together.

“Daddy said not to—”

“If Daddy wanted us to do something, he should’ve come with us.”

Paula presses her lips together. _Daddy’s dead_ , she wants to say but knows better than to mention. Luisa won’t acknowledge it. She pretends they’re just on an adventure. Fifteen years old in a country where people hate people like them and would rather throw them into mines or train work or _other_ work that their dad didn’t mention but Paula knows they need to avoid.

Stay hidden. Stay safe.

“We’re supposed to take care of each other, not fight. And if we keep going and find a town, we might find more food. _And water_ , Lu. Don’t you want water?” Paula’s eyes light up as she glances over to her sister, and she smiles as she sees Luisa’s light up in return.

“ _Water._ ” Luisa licks her dry lips and nods. “You think we’ll get water this time?”

Paula nods, even if she doesn’t necessarily believe it. “We _have_ to. We need water. They’ll let us get something. They give free water to their horses; they have to give free water to us.”

Luisa’s brows furrow. “We aren’t horses, Pauls. They might not like people stealing horse water.” She bites her lower lip. “And how will we get food? We don’t have any more money.” She picks up her bag and jangles it a little bit. When they’d crossed the border, there’d been a sharp metallic sound, a clink of a few coins against each other, but now there is nothing of the sort.

There are a few more coins left in Paula’s bag, but she’s tried to keep from spending them as much as she can. She haggles where Luisa never did, because she knows that people up the price for people like them – for children who they think can’t fight for themselves. It’s about making money out here, isn’t it? Keeping towns from drying up into nothing. She’s certain they’ll all dry up anyway.

Paula doesn’t say it but she’s certain their daddy had expected to find a more permanent place by now. But any time they’ve tried to stay anywhere longer than a couple of days, the townspeople have run them out. He must have thought people would be nicer here. They aren’t.

“Lu, look.” Paula points.

There, in the distance, are a few lights, a few buildings. They’re barely there, almost hovering, like maybe the lack of water’s making her see something that isn’t really there. But Luisa’s eyes widen, which means they’re both seeing the same thing, so they have to be real, don’t they?

“Just a little further,” Paula says, “and then we can stop. You can make a little bit, can’t you?”

Luisa nods rapidly before saying, finally, “Yes, yes, I can. We can get water and food and find somewhere soft to sleep.”

Paula hopes that all of that is true. She certain that it’s not all true, but she _hopes_. She glances up to the sky as they walk, offers a quick prayer to the God that her daddy believes in but she’s not certain she does – because how many people out here say they do but don’t help her and don’t help her sister – and starts trying to shuffle forward a little faster. She’s gone without water longer than her sister has. She shared what she had with her because she knows Lu wouldn’t have made it this far without something.

Her sister drinks like a horse.

* * *

The rooster crows as the sun just breaks the horizon and Cade drops his feet over the side of his bed, shoves them in his cowboy boots, and is on his way to the stables before the rooster can crow a second time. His mama gave him a responsibility when she adopted him – take care of the horses, and the horses will take care of you – which hadn’t sounded like a responsibility when he’d agreed to it because he’d always wanted to spend time with the horses but had turned into one when he realized that _taking care of the horses_ meant _getting up at the crack of dawn to check their feed and water_.

…and then turned into a lot of other farm-related chores.

But Cade still likes that his first thing every morning is going down to the stables and seeing the horses. Once he’s there, he runs his hand on their noses one by one and then checks each of their stalls for water. Some of them need proper filling, and he’ll see to that once he knows how many need it.

Then there’s Rosie, all speckled in brown and white and the sweetest horse he’s ever met, who’s never once tried to nibble at his fingers and even takes carrots from his hands without being anything other than gentle, who always meets him at the front of her stall—

—who is _not_ at the front of her stall, but is instead lying in one corner of her stall with her back towards him. She looks back at Cade and nickers once as he opens her stall door and goes inside.

“Something wrong, Rosie?” Cade creeps over and bends down next to her only to find two girls curled up together against her stomach. His blue eyes widen. “Hey!”

One of the girls is up like a flash, standing between the other girl and everything else. She looks about his age, maybe a little bit older, but he isn’t sure. They’re both pretty dirty. Long dark hair. He thinks maybe they’re twins. She says something he can’t quite understand and nudges her sister. The other girl yawns and looks at him with the biggest eyes he thinks he’s ever seen before waggling tiny fingers at him.

They look almost bone thin, and their lips are cracked.

“Um…hablo englais?” Cade asks in what he hopes is accurate Spanish. He hasn’t really learned any, although he’s picked up a few phrases here and there. The girl in front stares at him, gives a short nod, and then waits. “Stay here,” he mutters, his hands out, palms toward them. “I’ll be right back.”

“ _Agua_ ,” the girl in the back says, staring at him with those large eyes. There’s more that Cade doesn’t understand, but he knows that word.

Water.

Cade rushes to their water supply. There’s two – one for the horses and the animals, which often isn’t as clean as what he and his mama drink, and then one for him and his mama, which there’s a lot less of but it’s cleaner. He grabs a glass from the house, fills it with water, and then returns to the girls. “Here.” He holds the glass out to them, and the girl in front stares at it and then at him before shaking her head.

It takes a second, brows furrowed, before Cade realizes why. He takes a sip from the glass and then holds it back out to them. “See? It’s okay. I can drink it.”

The girl stares at him then at the glass and then takes the glass. She hands it to her sister, who begins to gulp the whole thing down all at once without stopping. She grins up at him when she’s done and hands the glass back to him and says something that he thinks must mean _more_.

Cade refills the glass at least twice before the girl is done, before the first girl drinks any of it at all, and each time she waits for him to drink some of it first, to make sure he isn’t doing anything to either of them. He thinks he understands that. He also thinks if the first girl – maybe she’s older; she _acts_ older – wasn’t there, the other one wouldn’t have cared at all. “Are you hungry?” he asks, looking at both of them. “I can get you some food, too. We’ve got some carrots and apples and stuff. Just wait here.”

This time, Cade leaves the glass with them as he returns inside. He’s got a plate full – _over_ full – with their leftovers and about to head back out when he feels a hand on his shoulder. He looks up to see his mom standing behind her and gives her a sheepish grin. “Hey.”

“Honey, what’re ya doing with all that food for?” His mom puts her hands on her hips. “I told you, we aren’t adopting any stray dogs. We got enough animals to look after without them.”

She doesn’t look _mad_ or _frustrated_ or _disappointed_ , and she was nice enough to take him in. He thinks, maybe, if he lets her know about the girls, she’ll take care of them, too. Besides, don’t most moms want a little girl? Isn’t that why so many of them hadn’t wanted him?

Cade bites his lower lip and shifts from one foot to the other. “Come with me, but you gotta promise not to get mad.” Then he leads her out to the stables – still carrying his plate of food – to the girls, who are still curled up next to Rosie, who is still curled up next to them, keeping them warm.

The first girl’s eyes widen when she sees the plate of food in Cade’s hands and then just as quickly narrow as she sees his mama enter behind him. She scoots between them and her sister again, holding her sister back behind her, despite the fact that her sister clearly doesn’t seem pleased with the situation. In fact, she keeps chattering at her, but the first girl seems to ignore her. She stares, wild-eyed, at his mama.

Cade waits to see how his mom will respond.

His mom raises a hand to her forehead and sighs. Then she smiles. “When I said we couldn’t adopt any more strays, I guess I didn’t mean _people_.” She looks at the girls and shakes her head. “Get them out of there and bring them inside. They can stay with us.” Then she takes the plate from him. “And they can have this once they get inside.”

Cade grins as she leaves and then takes the first girl’s hand. She frowns and rips her hand out of his. He presses his lips together. “It’s okay,” he says. “You can stay with us. We’ll take care of you.”

The first girl stares at him warily, but it seems like that’s all the other one needs to hear. She pushes around her sister, then grabs her hand and practically drags her to her feet, chattering at her the entire time. It takes a few minutes before there’s enough of a lull in what she’s saying for the first girl to say anything back, and whatever she says, it causes her sister to pout.

Eventually, the first girl turns back to him and presses her lips together. She points at herself before saying, her words soft but firm, “I’m Paula.” Then she points to her sister. “Luisa.”

When she points to him, Cade grins. “Cade.”

“You take care of us?”

Her words are very exact, as if she’s trying not to mess up. He thinks it’s kind of cute. “Yeah,” Cade says. “I’m gonna try, anyway.” He bends down towards them. “I’m real good at trying."


	2. Chapter 2

Days pass. Paula doesn’t get any more comfortable sitting at a table with Cade and his mother, and she doesn’t eat anything until she sees either of them eat it first. Luisa, on the other hand, eats more than enough for both of them and drinks enough water that Cade’s mama keeps saying that she’ll drink them all out of house and home – a statement that makes Paula wary, even though the woman seems to find it funny whenever she says it. Luisa grins up at her and rubs her dirty shirt sleeve across her equally dirty lips (there’s a lot of meat and a lot of gravy and a lot of barbecue to go with the heaping plate of vegetables that Cade brought them when they first met) and chatters back at her in a mixture of Spanish and the English she’s picked up that only Paula can really understand. Most of the time she tells Cade’s mother that Luisa is saying _thank you_ , when really Luisa is obviously saying a lot more than that. Luisa frowns at her and tells her to say the rest of it, but Paula won’t. She doesn’t want to translate. She’s still not comfortable here, and she doesn’t feel like sharing. Not her sister.

Once they’re all cleaned up and Cade’s mother’s had a better look at them – and once they seem to have filled out a little more – Paula’s still thinner than Luisa is, not because she isn’t eating but because Luisa eats _so much more_ – the woman takes them into town. All of them – Paula, Luisa, and Cade all together. She ruffles a hand through Cade’s hair and murmurs, “Sheriff should be back in town by now, you think?” And Cade’s eyes light up.

Paula just hears the word _sheriff_ and wants to fill hers and Luisa’s packs with food again, their flasks with water, and to take her sister and get them both out of there. But it’s too late. The woman already has them with her son in a covered wagon headed towards town. She thinks they could both jump out of the back and run to the house, get there things, and get out, but she doesn’t think she could convince Luisa to leave.

Luisa nudges her with her elbow when she notices she’s being quieter than normal (which, admittedly, takes a good few minutes because she talks enough to fill the silences that Paula leaves behind). “What’s wrong, Pauls? Did I say something wrong again?”

“You didn’t say anything wrong.”

Cade looks back and forth between the two of them. “What’d she say?”

One of the many benefits Paula has found with their new living situation is that Cade can understand about as much Spanish as Luisa can speak English. _Less_ , in fact. Luisa, at the very least, can understand what everyone else is saying; she just has trouble putting the words together correctly to answer them in their language. But Cade doesn’t seem to understand what they’re saying at all, and that seems to be the same with his mother, who appears to be more than content to let Paula translate for her sister.

Not that Paula is fluent in English, but she’s at least understandable.

“She saying…why you are excited for the sheriff being back?”

“ _That’s not what I said!_ ”

But Paula ignores her sister and focuses instead on the blond boy sitting next to them. This is easier said than done; Luisa gives Paula a shove and then sits with her arms crossed and her face contorted into a huge pout. Eventually, Paula nudges Luisa, but that doesn’t help matters either. Luisa just pouts more.

“If the sheriff’s back, that means _Bill_ ’s back!” Cade’s eyes seem to sparkle. “Bill’s my best friend! You’ll _love_ him.” His smile changes, and he laughs a little bit. “Or maybe you won’t. You don’t seem to like much of anything around here.” He almost frowns until he nudges Luisa. “ _Luisa_ will like Bill, though.”

“ _Of course, I will. I like everybody!_ ” Luisa sticks her tongue out at Cade. “ _And he’ll like me! Everybody likes me!_ ”

“See?” Cade says. “She agrees with me!”

 _You don’t know that_ , Paula wants to say. She wants to tell him that Luisa’s said something entirely different than what he thinks, but it doesn’t matter. She kicks her feet over the edge of the wagon and stares at the ground moving slowly beneath them. Not so slow, maybe. Faster than she could run.

“What is making Bill your better?”

Cade stares at Paula and blinks. “What makes Bill what?”

Paula presses her lips together and thinks about the words for a few minutes. “Your better…your friend?”

“Oh, you mean my best friend?”

Paula nods once. The scabs on her knees are finally healing. She hasn’t been picking at them, but they’d stung like crazy when Cade’s mama had washed them with alcohol right after she’d taken her and Luisa in. Paula had grit her teeth together and kept herself from doing anything more than tearing up – Cade’s mama had said she was a strong girl – but Luisa, who’d had a lot of little nicks all over her palms, had sobbed throughout the entire thing. Cade’s mama had to hold her hands down so that she wouldn’t rub them across her eyes, which had only made things worse – but if she’d gotten any of that alcohol in her eyes, it probably would have been even worse. Luisa’s palms had healed right up after that, but Paula’s knees are still on the mend.

“I don’t know,” Cade says with a shrug. “I guess he’s like my brother.”

“ _You have a brother? And we haven’t met him?_ ”

Paula turns to Luisa. “ _No, dummy, he said_ like _a brother, which means they’re not brothers like he’s not our brother._ ”

Luisa pouts again and scoots back in the wagon, further away from the edge and further away from her sister. “ _I didn’t say he was our brother! You’re so mean! I didn’t do anything to you; why are you being so mean to me?_ ”

Paula doesn’t know how to explain that she isn’t being mean. She bites her lower lip and looks out back down the road they’ve already come from. She’s tired of being in this wagon, and she’s tired of being here. She just wants to take her sister and go back and be with her daddy.

“ _Daddy said someone would let us stay and take care of us,_ ” Luisa says from back in the wagon. “ _You listened when he told us to leave; you oughta listen to him now._ ” Then she crossed her arms and curled up with a frown.

“What’d she say?” Cade asks.

Paula just shakes her head. “She is saying she is tired.” She scoots back from the edge of the wagon. “Me, too.” She moves away from him and curls up next to her sister.

At first, Luisa doesn’t seem to be happy with the arrangement, but after a few minutes, she wraps her arms around her sister’s waist and buries her head against her. This, at least, Paula is familiar with, but she has trouble relaxing. She’s been having trouble relaxing ever since she’d been talked into staying with these people. A part of her still isn’t sure she’s made the right decision.

* * *

When they finally reach town, Cade’s mom sends him off to find the sheriff while she leads Paula and Luisa to the general store. Paula’s eyes are drawn to the rows and rows of canned food, the bags of dry beans and rice, and even though she’s had the opportunity to eat more than enough while staying with Cade and his mother, she can’t stop the gentle rumbling in her stomach. There’s nothing wrong with their food, of course, but she misses the food that her parents used to make before…. Well, before. She turns just enough to see Luisa eyeing the food, too, and smiles at her.

“ _Do you think, if we ask nicely, she’ll let us cook something?_ ” Luisa asks just as soon as she sees Paula staring at her.

Paula’s eyes narrow. “ _We shouldn’t make a practice of cooking for them. I don’t want them to think it’s okay to make us do the cooking. Then we could get stuck doing that._ ”

Luisa frowns. “ _We should help out. We can’t just stay with them for free. Even Cade has chores!_ ”

Cade’s mom looks blankly at each of them and then smiles. “I hoped I could help you two find new clothes,” she says, her voice soft. “I don’t want you to get rid of these, but it might be nice to have something else to change into.”

Paula feels how threadbare her own shirt has grown, but that just means it’s comfortable, means it can breathe. Still, looking at Luisa, she can see how holey her sister’s clothes have gotten. All that walking in just the one outfit hasn’t done them any favors, and while she doesn’t want to get rid of the last outfit they saw their daddy in, she can see some sense in what Cade’s mother is saying. “Thank you,” she says, her voice hesitant, “but we are having no money.”

Cade’s mother kneels down so that she is closer to Paula’s height. “I’m taking care of you now,” she says, her voice soft. “I know you don’t particularly like me or trust me, but as long as you want to stay with my family, I’m going to try and take care of you. That means food, that means water, that means clothes. And if you decide to leave, you can take those things with you. I hope you’ll stay, but I’m not going to _make_ you stay.” She smiles, and without a second thought, she takes Paula’s hands in her own and gives them a gentle squeeze. “I think you’ll be safer with us than walking somewhere else.” Then she peeks over Paula’s shoulder and gives Luisa an even brighter smile, mimicking the one Paula _knows_ her sister is wearing. “You want new clothes, too, don’t you?”

“ _Yes!_ ”

Paula looks over her shoulder to see Luisa nodding rapidly. She takes her hands out of Cade’s mother’s and brushes her long brown hair back behind one ear and out of her face. Her hair hangs straighter, longer than Luisa’s does; her sister’s hair has always been more wavy than her own. Even when they were born – Luisa’s hair had been almost curly while Paula’s had seemed almost plastered to her head. Their mama had told them the story so many times when they were younger.

Then she’d died. Then their daddy had taken them south across the border to keep them safe during the war. Then he’d sent them back, alone, without him, once the war was over.

“If we are to be staying with you,” Paula says, her voice hesitant, “you will be teaching us to speak better?” She looks up, her voice as firm as she can make it, her eyes hard and dark. This is more for her sister than for herself; although Paula is _very_ aware that she is having trouble, too, she thinks that she can pick up whatever she’s having trouble with simply by paying enough attention to how other people are speaking.

Cade’s mother smiles a little brighter. “I have something in mind for that,” she says, “but first, let’s finish up here, okay?”

Luisa takes Paula’s hand as Cade’s mother stands up straight again, and she drags her through the store to the other end, where there are some different fabrics and a few dresses already made. She runs her free hand through the fabric and then turns to Paula with a grin. “ _Here, try this one!_ ” She pulls out some of the fabric, and Paula runs her hand along it. It’s soft. Real soft.

But while Luisa is drawn more and more into the different fabrics, Paula finds herself drawn to the boots and spurs. She doesn’t want pants – she’s not that sort of woman, and she likes her skirts, even if they’ve been split and stained by moving from the border. She _likes_ the splits – it’s made them a lot easier to move in – but she doesn’t know if she can ask Cade’s mom to create those for her.

Paula watches as Luisa races over to Cade’s mom and drags her to some of the fabric the same way she’d just dragged her over. Luisa points to a couple of the fabrics and then to her own skirt, showing the woman some sort of flowing design. Then she points to her blouse and the intricate stitching that they haven’t seen on any of the readymade dresses or blouses with a bright grin, indicating how much she likes that. Paula wonders if the other woman feels like her ear is being talked off the same way that Paula always does when Luisa’s trying to explain something to her or if not understanding exactly what she’s saying helps with that at all. She thinks maybe she doesn’t.

As the other two look more and more at fabrics, Paula finds herself wandering through the rest of the general store. There’s a bulletin board in the back covered with wanted signs like she used to see in the bar across the border but with completely different signs. Most of the pictures seem to be of people like her but with big, broad hats and bandanas around their throats, and one of the posters has no picture whatsoever, just the barest sketch of what is probably a woman with bright red hair and steely blue eyes and the title _Sin Rostro_ above it. But there’s another poster with the same label just next to it, and in this one, the woman has black hair and brown eyes. Next to these is a third one and the woman is blonde with green eyes – almost as though the poster maker has no idea what this Sin Rostro person actually looks like, save for thinking that she must be a woman – until Paula notices others a few feet away with the same title but with the image of a man on them instead. Her brows furrow. How can they have a wanted poster for someone when they don’t know what they look like?

“Looking for someone you know?”

Paula turns around at the rough voice she doesn’t recognize and sees a squat man – not big but not so tall as her daddy had been – standing behind her. He wears a broad-rimmed hat just like one of the ones in the wanted posters and a flannel shirt tucked into his jeans. There’s a big golden star on one of his pockets.

_The sheriff._

“No.” Paula juts her chin out – which is stupid because this is the sheriff and she doesn’t want him to think poorly of hers. “I am only looking.”

“Paula!”

Just behind the sheriff, Paula sees Cade gesturing at her with one hand. There’s another boy with him with the same sort of broad-rimmed hat that the sheriff and the outlaws are wearing, only his is a bright shining white, as if he’s just washed it. His hair’s a little more straw-colored than Cade’s is, and his eyes look to be a clearer blue. This boy’s a little shorter than Cade, a little more wiry. She likes him all at once, although she can’t say why.

When Paula moves towards them, the sheriff pats her on the back so strong that it might have been a push instead. “You stay away from my boy, girl. I don’t want him getting any ideas.”

Paula doesn’t look back as she runs over to meet Cade and his friend. Cade is grinning, his hands shoved into his pockets. “This,” he says, thumb pointing at the boy next to him, “is Bill.” He nods from Bill to her. “And _this_ is _Paula_.”

“It is nice,” Paula starts, focusing entirely on the new boy, “to be meeting you.” She holds out her hand, and the new boy gives her a hearty shake.

Bill seems to relax all at once as he drops her hand and nods towards where the sheriff is still looking over the wanted the posters. “Hope my dad’s not been giving you a hard time.” His jaw works quickly. “Or told you not to bother me. He _does_ that.”

“You know he told me the same thing, right?” Cade asks, knocking Bill’s shoulder. “Doesn’t seem to mind _me_ too much.”

Paula nods and frowns. “I think he will be minding me.” She looks past the boys. “Did you meet my sister?” Almost at the very mention of her name, Luisa appears all at once, bumping slightly into Paula’s side, and tugs on her shirt sleeve. “ _What’s wrong, Lu?_ ”

“ _Ms. Emily wants to see you._ ” Luisa’s brow furrows, and she frowns. “ _Ms. Emily, Cade’s mom. She wants to see you. Wants to talk clothes. She doesn’t want to get us all the same things. Thinks twins dressing in matching clothes is weird. Is it weird? Mom used to always say it was cute. It’s cute, isn’t it? I like when we’re being cute. I like being cute!_ ” It takes a minute before she notices the boys standing across from them. She grins. “ _Hi, Cade. Hi, sheriff boy._ ”

Cade grins. “Hi, Luisa. Can’t wait to understand what _you’re_ saying.”

Luisa sticks her tongue out at him. “ _That’s not nice! I understand what you’re saying just fine! Why are you so mean to me?_ ” She turns to Paula. “ _Why is he so mean to me?_ ”

“ _He’s a boy. It means he likes you._ ”

“ _Ew! I don’t like boys; they’re gross! Tell him that!_ ” Luisa props her hands on her hips and glares at him. When Paula doesn’t say anything immediately, she shoves her with her elbow. “ _Tell him!_ ”

Paula sighs and rolls her eyes. “Luisa would like me to be telling you she does not like you and you are….” She squints, puzzling over the word. “Como se dice?” She snaps her fingers, trying to remember the English. “Eeeeehhhh. Gross?”

“Gross?!” Cade stares at Luisa, blinking. “Why does she think I’m gross? What’d I do?”

Paula shrugs. “You are a boy. She does not like boys. The cooties.”

“ _I didn’t say anything about cooties!_ ” Luisa takes a deep breath. “ _Boys don’t have cooties! That’s just a myth Daddy made up so that you wouldn’t go kissing them._ ” She makes kissing noises, and Paula shoves her. “ _Ouch!_ ”

“ _I don’t want to kiss any boys!_ ” Paula glares at her sister then turns to Cade and Bill and offers them a smile. “Bill,” she says, trying to freeze the smile on her face, “this is my sister, Luisa. She is, how you say, annoying.”

Bill seems to have just watched the exchange between them, and he shrugs once, his hands shoved into his pockets. In his own blue and tan flannel, he looks almost like the spitting image of his father, if his dad were tall and thin instead of squat. In a few years, she’s pretty sure that Bill will be taller than his dad is. Maybe this year. Maybe he’ll even be as tall as her daddy was.

“She’s your sister,” Bill says real slow by way of reply. “I think all sisters are annoying. _To each other_ ,” he says quickly, cheeks blushing a bright red. “I don’t think _you’re_ annoying. You seem kind of nice, and all.”

“Well, look at that,” Cade says, slapping the small of his buddy’s back. “You got Bill to _blush_.” He laughs. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him quite so flustered.”

Paula’s brow furrows, and she repeats the word. “Flustered?” She looks from Cade to Bill and back again. “I am not knowing this word.” She turns to Luisa, who shakes her head. “What is this meaning…flustered?”

“He’s all squirrely.” Cade rubs his hand along the back of his neck. He takes Luisa’s hand and pulls her with him. “Y’all can come out and play now, right? Mom’s done with you?” He looks from Luisa to Paula.

Paula shakes her head. “Luisa says your mom is wanting me. But I am thinking I will be done quick.” She nods to Luisa. “ _Go play. Do not be mean to the boys. They don’t know how mean you can be._ ”

“ _But they were mean to me first!_ ” Luisa sticks her tongue out at Paula instead this time. “ _I will be mean to them if they are mean to me!_ ” She stamps her little foot and stares at her sister.

“ _Not Bill!_ ” Paula says, and she doesn’t know why she does. “ _Bill’s mine!_ ”

Luisa’s eyes widen, and she grins. “ _Not Bill, huh?_ ” Her tongue pokes out over her teeth. “ _What are you going to do to me if I’m mean to him? You gonna be mean to me again, too?_ ” Then she scampers off with the boys before Paula can stop her, laughing the entire way.

It’s the boys’ issue now, in Paula’s opinion. If they’re mean to her, they got what they asked for. Then again, neither of them probably understood what she was saying, so that’s their own problem. They’d left before she’d had a chance to explain. _Then again,_ boys shouldn’t be mean to girls they didn’t like in the first place. Boys shouldn’t be mean to girls _at all_ , but try telling them that.

Paula makes her way back to the fabric and the dresses, where she finds Cade’s mom waiting on her. She looks up at her and takes a deep breath. “Luisa said that you were wanting me.”

“Your sister showed me a lot of fabrics she like and a few patterns.” Cade’s mom smiles, but it’s a little weak. “At least, I hope that’s what she was saying. I figure she wouldn’t be pointing and dragging me to anything she didn’t like, right?” At this, her smile eases a bit, as if sharing a joke with Paula that only they can really understand.

It isn’t funny to Paula, but she isn’t going to say that to the other woman. She looks through the fabrics Cade’s mom already has – she knows her sister well enough to know that, yes, those are ones Luisa likes. Her hand runs along a few of them. They’re all extremely soft, which worries her, and she flinches. “Mine can be the same as hers,” she says. It’s cheaper this way, she thinks.

“No, no, come here.” Cade’s mother takes one of Paula’s hands in her own and leads her over to the fabric. “I want you to show me ones that you like. My sister and I,” she continues, “we were always arguing over clothes and over looking the same. We wanted to be different, to be seen as different. I know you’re the oldest,” and Paula doesn’t correct her, doesn’t say that they’re twins, even though that’s what she normally used to say – _my sister and I, we are the same age, we came out of the womb at the exact same time_ – which isn’t strictly speaking true, but it’s close enough, “but you don’t have to make reasonable choices. Just pick something you like.” She crouches down to meet Paula’s eyes. “Even if it’s just one thing that’s only yours.”

Paula nods. Even if she doesn’t agree, she doesn’t see any point in arguing. Besides, Luisa is probably excited to have clothes that are all hers and not at all like Paula’s, and, truth be told, they do have entirely different styles. Luisa has always found a way to make her clothes a little more flamboyant, a little more loud, and Paula’s always been more…not conservative, but drawn to a more tailored approach. She steps away from Cade’s mom and looks at the rows of fabrics, looks back at the ones Luisa has chosen, and then steps forward to choose her own.

* * *

“ _Paula, they’re being mean to me!_ ”

Almost as soon as she gets outside, Luisa is hiding behind her, hands holding onto her sister’s waist, and every now and again peeking around her and sticking her tongue out at the two boys who came running up a little too late after. Bill tips his hat to Paula and stops, but Cade is still looking around her for Luisa, his eyes not even resting on Paula a minute before looking at the wavy-haired twin behind her. “You can’t hide behind her forever, Lu!”

“ _Can if I want to!_ ”

“ _What’d you do to them?_ ” Paula asks, glancing over her shoulder to her sister.

Luisa pouts. “ _I didn’t do anything to them! They were mean to me!_ ” Then she grins. “ _I didn’t do anything to your boy. Left that to you._ ”

Paula’s eyes narrow, and she turns back to the boys. “She is saying you were being mean.”

“We weren’t being mean!” Cade exclaims. He squints and wipes his hands on his jeans. “I was only playing!”

But Paula has already learned not to listen to him. It’s not easy to trust Cade or his mama – she trusts his mom a little more than she trusts him, even though he’s normally fairly nice to them – but she finds herself trusting Bill easily enough. She stares at the other boy instead, her lips pressing together. “What playing?”

Bill shoves his hands in his pockets and scuffs the toe of his boot in the dirt. “He stole my hat and shoved it on her head.”

“ _And it felt all nasty and sweaty and gross!_ ” Luisa shivers against her sister’s neck. “ _So I stamped on their feet and now they’re coming to attack me!_ ”

“I’d’ve gotten it back and helped her, if she hadn’t jumped me,” Bill continues. “I like my hat being stolen just as much as you liked wearing it – _all nasty and sweaty and gross_.” He slips into Spanish, mimics Luisa’s words, and then grins. When Paula’s eyes widen, he winks at her. “ _Mama taught me_ ,” he says. “ _She teaches lots of folks want to know. Could probably help you with your English._ ”

Cade looks from Bill to the girls and then back again. His jaw drops open. “Hey, how come you didn’t tell me you understood what they were saying?”

Bill shrugs. “It’s more fun for me to know.” He turns back to the girls. “ _Does this mean I can be on your side now? You’re an awful lot cuter._ ”

“ _Anyone is cuter than Cade is._ ”

It maybe should be Luisa who says that, but it’s Paula, staring at the boy who doesn’t know her language, then letting her eyes wander back over to the other boy who she instinctively likes better although she can’t say why. She gives him a wink. “ _Even you._ ”

Luisa shoves her. “ _Quit flirting with him! That’s gross!_ ” She pretends to gag and runs off, and as soon as she does, Cade chases after her. But Paula stays where she is, and Bill stays right across from her.

They stare at each other for a few minutes, before Bill steps forward, his hand out. “ _Truce._ ”

“ _You weren’t at war with me, lawman._ ” But Paula steps forward to meet him anyway and takes his hand again. It’s a little more rough and dirty than it was before, when they’d shaken hands in the general store, but it’s still just as warm as it had been. His hand’s a little bit bigger than hers is. She’s not sure how to feel about that.

Bill smiles easy, and his eyes twinkle with mischief. “ _Then let’s not be at war at all._ ” He drops her hand and cocks his head over in the opposite direction. “ _There’s a nice place with good food over there, if you’ll let me get you something to eat._ ” He tips his hat back a little ways so he can see better. “ _They’ve even got soda, and I know Cade doesn’t have anything like that._ ”

Paula’s brow furrows. “ _Soda?_ ” She repeats the word, turns it over on the tip of her tongue, but saying it again – repeating it – doesn’t give it any sudden meaning. She stares at Bill.

“ _You’ve never had soda?_ ” Bill holds out his hand for her to take it again. “ _You’ve got to come with me, then! It’ll be my treat!_ ” He grins at her.

It takes a second, but Paula takes his hand again and lets him lead her over to another part of town. Luisa and Cade are off playing, but she’s sure if Cade’s mom – or if either of them – want to know where she is, they’ll be able to find her. The sheriff’s son’s not going to kidnap her, probably. Or maybe some other sheriff’s son would, but she feels safe with Bill.

It’s an odd feeling.


End file.
